|
This study focused on the travel writing of Liang Dan-Fong. Since the past, in both the East and the West, women were unable to travel and migrate as men could. An examination of Eastern and Western travel histories reveals that travel was extremely gender-differentiated. In an era when martial law controlled the travel of Taiwanese citizens abroad and tourism had not yet been made open, Liang began her career at the age of 38, which was more than 40 years ago. Dressed in a plain qipao and carrying her painting tools, Liang traveled alone around the world, leaving her footprints across the globe. Among Taiwanese women, she was an early practitioner of solitary, self-guided travel and painted from life. As Liang painted, she also wrote down her feelings and the things that she saw and heard during her travels. Her writing is exquisite and graceful, and although her travels were filled with struggles, she conveys observations made during journeys and inspirations of life through text and illustrations, enriching the spirit of the reader. This paper focuses on the works of travel literature by Liang and is divided into five sections. The first section is the introduction, which primarily explains the study motive, objective, and scope and contains a literature review section. The second section concerns the development of Taiwan’s contemporary travel literature and reviews the developmental process of travel literature in Taiwan in comparison with the development of Taiwanese society. The third section details the life experiences and views on travel of Liang, gathering scattered pieces of her life story and performing detailed research. By understanding the life history of the writer, a more comprehensive perspective of the features of her travel writing was gained. From her writings, this paper uncovers her perspectives on travel and examines the meaning of travel for Liang. The fourth section discusses the style of Liang’s travel writing and uses her work to analyze the writing process, meaning, and characteristics of her travel literature to reproduce the writer’s journey and mental landscape. Finally, the fifth section concludes, primarily summarizing the overall study results to present a complete assessment of Liang’s travel literature and discussing its achievements.
|